Separation of metallic sulfids from sulfid ores.



erirl. "on suarralzairr, .53. co. eons SEPAELELTHJN O3? Be it known I l,'lnoiigs Jenn G7 uni; nietallurgist, subject of the K treat lh'itain,residing at dunyah, Arnie dale street, lilllfliiill't near Melbourne, inthe inflate of Victor Commonwealth oi Australia whose post-otliceaddress is 369 tfoliins street, Itlelbournc aforesaid, have inventedcertain new and useful improvements in the Separation of ltfietallicSultids from h'ulfiil Ores, of which the following is a specification.

lt iscozt-inion knowledge that when oiled particles are suspei'ided inor floated on Wetcr, or aqueous solutions, the oiled particles willstrongly. attrac each other, and on 1 tiilgether will form coheringaggrelt also common knowledge that ."ht into contact w" i pulo. 01 s,one propconditions, nl tend to attach itself selectively to rticl andleave the n'ietallic suilid p cc,

n-tious of the ore free of oil. nvention consists oi. a special methodiii of nu: use of these properties of oiled 1 particles and oil, tor

improving the scparze tion of metallic sulfide from the rockycnstituents of solid ores by gaseous flotation processes which aredependent upon the ac tion of heated acidulated solutions, by renueringthe llotation scum obtained by these processes more coherentandpermanent.

lo conducting gaseous flotation processes at present in practice, thepulverized ore is trcatwi with heated acidulated solutions in such a himnor as to cause the evolution 0:! carbon (lioxid or other gas. This gasattaches itself in films or bubbles selectively 1-; the particles-1 ofi'uetallic sulfids and floats them to the urtace oi the heated solutionas :2 more or l coherent aggregation of and metallic ultids, orscum,which is coll ted in a suitable manner, and dealt with as a concentrateproduct; the rocky portion oi i'zncm'e'not being so acted upon, sinksthnjiuggh the solution to the bottom of the containing vessel, fromwhich it is removed in a suit; hle manner and dealt with as a retuscproduct. v

in can'yiijig out this improved process the rulent condition (that is tobeen crushed fine enough Specification of Letters Patent.

- duced by the action of the acid t l fiililljfd @FFICE.

OF A ZZhLXDALE, MELBOURNE. VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, ORE EATMENI LIMITED, QFIMELBOUENE, GD? GE VKCTQELL, .HUSTEEQZIA.

llatentecl Dec. 3., 1912.

Serial no. 501,387.

or'thereabout of a viscous oil, animal, or vegetable) havavity less thanthat of W21- a boil point. higher than that of The said. mixing may beelfected, either durii'ig the pulverization of the ore, or by adding theoil before, or during the passing of the pulverized ore through adisintegrator, a trough mixer, orother elleotive d e A iixing plant Thepulverizedore, after V oiled, is ready for treatment by the beforementioned gaseous prod e in the usual lanner, that is to say by feedingthe oiled ore into a heated acidolated solution in a separating vesseland skimming, bloating oil, or otherwise removthe coherent buoyant scumof gasified t lparticles n t sink and are Withdrawn at" the in treatingmany sulfid ores by gaseous hall of one per cent. to

le he unoiled gangue iar-- flotation "ithout first oiling the oreparticles in; possible the profitable treatment of a.

large number of ores, which cannot be effectively dealt with by thebefore mentioned gaseous flotation processes.

The essential feature of this invention is the preliminary oiling of theparticles preparatory to gaseous flotation separationand this difi'ers.tiroin other gaseous flotation prtcesses in which oil is used inasmuchas that in all of them the-oil is brought into contact with thaparticles by violent agitation in the aqueous solution to produce Whatis known as froth causes more or less of the flotation gas proupon theore to be beaten out of the miXt-ure'and thereby lost while the frothingeffect is largely dependent upon the introduction of gas (such as air)from extraneous sources. In this invention all agitation is carefullyavoidedand the flotation effect is entirely dependent upon the gasgenerated by the action of the :zeiiiulated solutintu upon 1.1m are orany ,ca'rbmmm ndditiuzzr-l Wide are mu to the ore for film; purpose W11?2 Umm'." mply performs the fume-1011 01!: undering the scum moreculmreni: zinrl permanent.

I claim- An impwverl TOQESS for the separation of metaiiim 512M523 fromsulfid ares which consists 01' first intimately mixing finely di videdpart fies 'f t fare with a. smallpwportion of viscours 0i slecfincfiyimding the oiled. are int-fa 2. heated mama-151 solution,

ifid pm uh'mvmg the unus and for the m bwwam' HUN tides aucl -sepzn'ufled sunken gau w pa riiwlu pu 'posg speclfied. w

1n wltness whereof. I. have I hand in was-mac of twu wiim day of B' arch1909.

TI'IOMAS JOHN G H I) E1" W 3.31. W5 messes LESLIE LA Wm); BLAIL AGNESLy' ms,

w) set my war 15th

